"Don't underestimate me. I know more than I say, think more than I speak, and notice more than you realize."

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We have all watched a disney movie at some point in our life, but have you ever taken the time to analyze the different types of stereotypes in the movies. There are a lot of stereotypes in disney movies weather they are right there in plain sight or hidden. For example in the movie Aladdin there are a lot of stereotypes towards gender and race. I am going to be talking about some of the stereotypes that stood out to me while I was watching the movie Aladdin that I had never noticed as a kid.

Not many people know about this, but the song that played in the beginning of the movie “Arabian night” was actually changed after there were complaints from aradin people. The original lyrics were:

“From a faraway place

Where the caravan camels roam.

Where they cut off your ear

If they don’t like your face

It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.”

These lyrics are racist and defame the Arabic race. They portra that Arabic people are violent and solve their problem through the use of violence and threat. Also the fact that the guards in the movie would always draw their swords when dealing with a problem supports the idea that arabic people are violent. For example when Jasmine stole an apple to give to a child and the shopkeeper threatened to cut her hands off as a punishment for theft, and when Aladdin steals the bread in the beginning of the movies, the guards are chasing him with their swords. the lyrics were later changed to:

“Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it’s flat and immense
And the heat is intense
It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home”

The characters in the movie are unique and quite different from each other. Aladin is shown
as a man who’s fighting for his survival. in the beginning of the movie he is shown as a low life person who doesn’t have a very bright future and he has to steal in order to survive and meet his needs. He doesn’t have any power over anything and then he falls in love with Princess jasmine who is a princess. Princess jasmine is shown as a respectful person who listens to what her father says and follows his instructions. she isn’t really shown as a person who does what she wants and makes her own path. Jafr is shown as the powerful male of the movie who is controlling and evil. He wants to rule and have all the power to himself, and he will do anything to get the power and cause destruction. The king is shown as a weaker person who can’t take decision on his own ,and is shown asking Jafar for advice about what to do for his daughter’s marriage then again to find a person that she could marry. The king should be the one making the decision but he is shown as a weaker person who needs the support of others to make a decision.

These stereotypes have a negative impact on the people, especially children, watching because it gives them the idea that the way these characters are shown in the movies is just an animated version of what we should be like. They give the wrong image of what people should be like, they make people feel like there are certain ways that men and women should act and behave based on their gender. They show that women should be elegant, respectful, and that they don’t really have that much power and that men should be strong, brave, powerful, and know how to handle situations “like a man”.